Superior weaponry doesn't always make for a successful empire explains historian Daniel R. Headrick in his book Power Over Peoples: Technology, Environments, and Western Imperialism, 1400 to the Present.

Civilizations have risen and fallen over access to the world's great oceans and waterways. Steven Solomon traces the history of this essential molecule in his book Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization.

David Priestland recounts the sweeping history of the far-reaching movement that shaped the twentieth century in his new book The Red Flag: A History of Communism.

Robert Krulwich is the host of WNYC's Radiolab and is a correspondent for NPR's science desk. He reads Abraham's sacrifice of Issac from the Book of Genesis.

The desire to possess the skulls of the famous led to the robbery of the graves of Haydn, Bethoveen, and Goya. Colin Dickey recounts these tales in Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius.

The 1507 Waldseemüller Map included the first cartographic representation of a very small sliver of land called "America." Toby Lester explains how this extraordinary map came to be in his book The Fourth Part of the World.

If you drink water, Pericles said, you'll never write anything wise. Iain Gately discusses his new book Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol.

Roosevelt was as passionate about preserving the wilderness as he was about hunting in it. Douglas Brinkley talks to Lewis Lapham about his latest book, The Wilderness Warrior.

Thucydides described disasters that "have occurred and always will occur as long as the nature of mankind remains the same." Donald Kagan reconsiders the life of the historian in his book Thucydides: The Reinvention of History.

Patrick Tyler is chief correspondent for The New York Times and the author, most recently, of A World of Trouble: The White House and the Middle East--from the Cold War to the War on Terror.